A place for me to discuss recent book acquisitions, my academic and other writing, my reading of fiction and poetry, and my enjoyment of popular culture. About the name: John Dee (1527-1609) kept a considerable library at his home in Mortlake, Surrey on the outskirts of London.

Saturday, December 03, 2005

Quote of the Week

Jules Feiffer, discussing his book The Great Comic Book Heroes (in Comic Book Artist v. 2 #6, p. 121):

"Well, nobody had ever written about the form except to denigrate it and treat it condescendingly as trash, though there were those trying to say it was really not trash at all. But I wanted to say, "Yes, it is trash, and this is the value of such trash. We need trash."

For a smart, insightful, and inspiring exploration of popular culture, no one has yet topped Pauline Kael's, "Trash, Art, and the Movies," reprinted in her collection titled For Keeps, (Dutton, 1994), p. 200. The piece was originally printed in Harper's Magazine in 1969, and was first collected in Kael's Going Steady, (Little Brown, 1970).